Gameday Thread: No. 6 Baylor vs. Houston

WACO, Texas – The No. 6 Baylor women’s basketball team hosts league newcomer Houston on Saturday at Foster Pavilion. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. and tickets are still available for the contest.

The game is available for streaming via Big 12 Now on ESPN+. A live radio broadcast will be available online and locally on 104.9 FM, and live in-game updates will be provided via Twitter and live stats. 

STARTING FIVE

• Baylor women’s basketball made its Foster Pavilion debut on Wednesday, picking up the 71-50 win over No. 23 TCU behind Bella Fontleroy’s career-high 21 points.
• A win on Saturday would push the Bears to 14-0 on the year. With the win, outside of the perfect 40-0 season by the 2012 national championship team, Baylor would be off to its best start in program history.
• In Baylor’s 13 wins this year, the Bears have held their opponents to their lowest scoring output seven times and an additional four teams to their second-lowest scoring outputs.
• Yaya Felder is 11 points shy of reaching 1,000 in her career. When she reaches this milestone, Baylor will be the only team in the country with five 1,000-point scorers active on its roster. 
• Baylor held TCU’s Madison Conner, who is currently second in the country with 64 made 3-pointers, to 0-for-6 behind the 3-point arc on Wednesday. It marked the first time this season Conner didn’t hit at least one from range.

SIGNATURE WINS

• Four teams in NCAA Division I women’s basketball have more than three AP Top 25 wins this year, and Baylor is one of them.
• UConn is 5-2 in games against top 25 opponents, while Baylor, South Carolina and UCLA are a perfect 4-0.
• In the Nicki Collen era, Baylor is tied for fourth with Indiana with 13 AP Top 25 wins and the Bears sit behind South Carolina (20), Stanford (17) and UConn (14) in that span.

ONLY SIX REMAIN

• Baylor is one of six undefeated teams left in Division I women’s basketball.
• Of the six teams, Baylor is tied with No. 1 South Carolina and Oregon State, who is receiving votes, with nine 20-plus point victories this season.
• Baylor and South Carolina are the only two undefeated programs in the country with at least one 20-plus point win over an AP Top 25 opponent. The Bears used a 21-point victory to take down No. 23 TCU on Wednesday, while the Gamecocks have a 29-point win over then-No. 10 Notre Dame and a 38-point victory over then-No. 14 Maryland on their record.

SCOUTING THE SERIES WITH HOUSTON

Houston holds the 33-15 advantage in the all-time series with Baylor, but the two programs have only played each other once since the turn of the century. Baylor earned the 74-58 victory over the Coogs in Riviera Maya, Mexico, on Nov. 27, 2021. In that game, NaLyssa Smith boasted a 21-point, 19-rebound performance to help the Bears win the Cancun Challenge. Prior to the game in 2021, Baylor and Houston hadn’t played a game against each other since the 1995-96 season.